


Truth

by Asimplewriterlivingasimplelife2



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy did love his sister, Child Abuse, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Season/Series 03, Sibling Bonding, They deserved growth, mentions of established relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 07:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19998028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asimplewriterlivingasimplelife2/pseuds/Asimplewriterlivingasimplelife2
Summary: Their relationship was complicated, yet it was the truth that seemed to bring them a little bit closer to a fresh start.





	Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I really suck at summaries but I kind of just had to write this.

Tonight was one of those nights again, Neil was pissed off and decided to take his anger out on Billy. It was late and her mom had probably retreated to the bedroom, not wanting to be in the middle of this growing screaming match. Max winced when she heard the slap and every insult Neil was spitting at Billy. She imagined Billy looking angry and desperately trying to lose himself in front of his father. 

Trying not to cry, trying not to hit him, trying not to show him that he was  _ scared.  _

Billy wasn’t scared of much, except maybe of his dad. 

After years of constant beatdowns, Neil still was trying to shape Billy to be just like him. Billy had that same bad temper and this urge to constantly prove to his dad that he was a perfect man, that he wasn’t a fag anymore. He didn’t have many friends at school because he usually either mocked or fought anyone that looked at him the wrong way. He brought a lot of girls and Max could hear the screaming coming from his room. He was an asshole to Max; not really hitting her but instead either saying really hurtful things or just taking his anger out on something else in the area. 

Drinking, smoking and fucking girls still didn’t seem to be really good enough to get Neil to stop beating him down. 

Sometimes Billy did what he wanted to do, ready to take up the consequences with his dad. He still liked to admire himself in the mirror a lot and take care of his appearance, even if his dad said only queers do that. He hid a book in the Camaro glove box after his dad ruined the last one he found in his room. Max heard him sing in the car on the way home to the music coming out of the stereo on the way home or when Max had to get dropped off somewhere. 

She heard him crying before in his room, trying to hide it with loud rock music from his speakers. It usually ended with him more than likely hitting or throwing something, after hitting that emotional wall Neil forced him to put up. 

Things were different when Billy met Steve. At first, she only found out after Dustin told her about the ‘jerk’ Steve was having a competition with at school. They both had a bad rivalry, one that led Billy to almost kill Steve on Will Byers floor. 

Max stood up to Billy for once and for a while, they didn’t say anything to each other. Car drop-offs were silent, they didn’t look at each other during dinner, and Max tried to ignore when Neil got pissed off with Billy for something else she couldn’t really understand. Even if she was pissed she started to notice this change in Billy around his dad. He was coming home late a lot more, earning extra harsh words from Neil. He looked stiffer than he usually did, with this withdrawn look in his eyes when Neil started getting in his face. Other days she actually saw Billy get mad and try to fight back, usually leading to things getting worse. 

Max didn’t really know what was so different until two weeks ago when Neil and Susan were out, she saw Billy kissing Steve Harrington in their driveway. The kissing was obviously a shock but she was more surprised to see them on speaking terms after all of that terrible stuff that had happened a few months before. Billy had a really happy smile on his face that went to his eyes, one that Max had never seen on him before. Steve was grinning like an idiot and looking at Billy with total heart eyes, just like those girls in those romance films. 

They looked really happy. 

Max was anxious about Neil coming home but thankfully they were pretty much done, Steve going on his way down the street and Billy coming inside. Max ran back to her room and shut the door, pretending that she totally didn’t see that for the rest of the night. 

She didn’t get why Neil had to really care so much about something that wasn't even his business, but she knew Billy couldn’t just stop being gay. She knew about Neil seeing Billy on the beach with a boy after Neil came home yelling about it to her mom. She remembered the screaming match Billy had with his dad, and the aftermath of the beating that may as well have left him dead. Sometimes Max wished her mom would have done something to stop it, convince Neil that they didn’t need to pack up to move all the way out here. She knew her mom wasn’t really caring about Billy being gay it was just  _ Neil,  _ she was too scared to stand up to him. Just like Max, she didn’t really stand much of a chance against that anger. She just watched it happen or just left the room to pretend. 

Max thought Billy was a big asshole, she didn’t think he deserved this. 

Really didn’t deserve this. 

Max closed her eyes tightly when she heard the punches start and the louder insults. It was about ten minutes before the noise had started to die down, Max put her ear to the door to listen for Neil. She waited a few seconds until she heard the front door slam, pretty positive that Billy wasn't the one who was leaving. Max quietly slipped out of her room to the bathroom, looking under the sink for the first aid box. 

Max had read a lot of first aid books from the library. She didn’t want Billy to get some infection when things got bad with Neil and it helped with the cuts she got from those too many times she fell off her skateboard. 

Cautiously Max walks with the overstuffed box to the living room to hopefully find Billy not dead. He’s sitting there on the floor with an arm wrapped around his stomach, clearly not having an easy time getting up. Max notes that he probably has a bunch of fresh bruises under his shirt, hopefully, no broken ribs. His lip is split again, there’s a cut on his cheek, and Max is pretty sure that he’s going to have just as bad bruises on his face when he wakes up tomorrow. 

Most of the time, Billy didn’t really fight her when she offered to help only because he more than likely was in too much pain. Right now though was different considering they both should have been still pissed off at each other, holding a grudge from months ago. 

Billy gave her an icy glare and growled, “Go the fuck back to your room Maxine. I’m fine.” 

“Seriously stop calling me that, it’s Max. Can you just shut up for one second and let me help?” 

Max can see his blue eyes looking a little brighter and wondered if he was trying to hold back tears. Billy took a deep breath in through his nose and his voice sounded a lot more choked, “He’s going to be fucking heated if he finds you out here trying to help me and I…you know how he is.”

_ I can’t take any more if he tries to go after you next.  _

Max didn’t really know if Neil would ever try to hit her and she didn’t want to find out. Billy, on the other hand, must have thought he would at some point and in his own way, tried to always take Neil’s anger off of her every time she made him mad. 

A weird way of protection. 

Max glanced out the window into the darkness, pretty sure Neil probably left to the bar again to go cool off and wouldn’t be home until later on into the night. She looked back at Billy trying to sound as confident as she could, “I think he’ll be gone for a while. It’s already kind of late and we have school so, we can just make it quick.” 

Billy probably wasn’t going to school and she was capable of skating, but Neil was probably going to make him drive her anyways.

Max saw that defensive look on Billy’s face again and was ready to argue with him some more about why he should just sit down and deal with it until he just gave her a grunt as a response. He slowly got himself up, not doing a very good job of hiding a wince and brought himself over to sit down at the kitchen table. 

Billy silently watched as she opened the box, looking for everything she needed. She could get the ice or something cold from the freezer, it would help with that swelling by his eye. His lip was bleeding but not as much as the cut on his face. The cut itself was dripping a scary amount of blood, but it didn’t look like it needed stitches. She could give him something for the pain, her mom had them in a cabinet for headaches, but she just hoped he didn’t have broken ribs. 

“Can you breathe okay?” 

Billy looked at her confused and gruffly replied, “Why?” 

“Well I can’t exactly help a broken rib or like a punctured lung with band-aids and alcohol, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t dying.” 

Billy looked tense at the mention of a hospital. She knew he hated the hospital and was expecting him to go back into that defensive mode, but he suddenly just seemed defeated. His shoulders slumped and his gaze went to the ceiling as he flatly replied, “I’m not dying Max.” 

They were silent again as Max was going over the checklist of what she needed to do now for that cut on his face.

Stop the bleeding, Clean, disinfect. Bandage. 

The split lip couldn’t be bandaged, but she could still stop the bleeding and at least clean it. Max sees him sitting there waiting, unintentionally rubbing a hand across his cheek. The fresh blood smears and Billy looks at his hand disgusted, muttering to himself, “Shit.” 

Billy really wasn’t going to pass out or anything, he’s seen blood plenty of times. Max went to get two clean towels from a drawer, soaking one with water before coming back. She looked up at him hesitantly, “Okay. I um...I need to stop the bleeding on that cut first.”

“I don’t have all night, do it.” 

Max hesitantly went over and pressed the dry towel to the bleeding cut, wincing when she touched the clear forming bruise. He was looking right at the front door like he was waiting for Neil to come storming back in and Max was just trying to pretend that this wasn’t happening. The bleeding eventually stopped and she went to clean the blood smeared on his cheek and on the cut. Billy didn’t really show much of a reaction to any of it besides the occasional wince as he stiffly kept his eyes on the door. Max cautiously eyed the bottle of alcohol before breaking the silence, “This part is going to hurt, I have to disinfect it...with the alcohol.” 

Billy just gave her a grunt as a response as she poured the alcohol on a cotton ball. Usually, when she took care of the scrapes from skating it was better to just get it over with and go fast, but she didn’t really know what to do for him. She was gentle and saw him wince, closing his eyes tightly for a moment to deal with the sting. 

She muttered a quiet, “Sorry.” 

He didn’t give much of a response and really wasn’t looking at her. Somehow in the middle of disinfecting she decided she was going to bring up the thing with Steve. Her mom was probably asleep and Neil wasn’t home. She knew he was going to get mad, probably really mad, but she felt like she may as well find out if they were dating now or not. He was probably going to hate her for a while after this, swear to kill her even if she said a word to it about Neil, but it wasn’t like he was going to hit her. 

She was willing to take her chances. 

Max said it as gently as she could, “Billy...I know about you and Steve.” 

How fast he moves takes her by surprise. His hand is on her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face and there’s fire behind his blue eyes. The grip on her wrist isn’t hard and she could back up if she wanted, she just couldn’t get anywhere near his face. He looked pissed off as he snarled out, “What the  _**fuck** _ are you talking about?” 

Billy can be tough, but Max really isn’t so scared of him like most people. She looks at him without hesitation, “I saw you guys kissing in the driveway two weeks ago.”

The grip on her wrist is going a little tighter as he started to get really heated. He spits out every word, “I am not a fucking fag, you don’t know shit about what you’re-”

“It’s okay.” 

He was still angry, but there was suddenly confusion in his eyes. A small smile came to Max’s as she remembered how happy he looked, “Cut the bullshit okay? I’m not going to tell Neil, my friends, my mom or anybody else. It’s none of my business and I don’t care, you can kiss whoever you want. I just wanted to ask since I was confused about if you guys still hated each other or if this was like a thing now, a real thing. I saw how happy you are with each other but I thought it would be better to just hear it from you instead of finding out later." 

Billy’s staring at her wide-eyed, all that rage suddenly draining away. His hand on her wrist is gone and Max can see his lips start to tremble. He's hitting that emotional wall again and it isn't hard to see that he's trying to hold back tears. Max sees his jaw stiffen and fresh tears swimming in his eyes. She quietly whispers, "You can cry you know? It's just me."

A few tears unwillingly fell down his cheeks and he put his eyes to the ceiling again, clearly now humiliated. Max didn't really see her asshole stepbrother anymore, she instead someone else that truly was completely broken down. She saw him roughly swallow and heard his voice break, "I tried, I fucking tried to not be queer.”

Max felt her own eyes burning as she tried to keep her own voice sounding strong, “ You can't change who you love Billy, it doesn’t work like that."

Things were painfully quiet for a while, more tears fell before Billy roughly wiped them away. There weren't any more defenses as his gaze went to the table. His eyes were sad, the same sad that was there when they left California

"It's a thing."

"What?”

"You asked me about what was going on with Harrington and I'm giving you the answer. It's a thing, a dating thing but Max I swear to God if you say anything-"

"I already told you I won't, I promise."

Max silently went back to work on the last of the disinfecting, before sticking the bandaid to his face. The lip was probably honestly going to be too awkward, but she made a note to tell him to clean it. Max went to the freezer to get one of the frozen packs of peas. She held it out to him and he took it without question, putting it on his face.

She went to go look for the medicine and glass for some water when she heard his broken sounding voice, "Max?"

Max glanced back to see him looking at her, the cold pack on his face. 

"Yeah?"

He looked hesitant and that emotion was still heavy in his eyes. Max didn’t really want to see him cry again after realizing that seeing him breakdown instead of just hearing it was so much worse. It made her feel a whole lot worse and honestly pretty close to tears herself. 

She saw Billy’s eyes look back to the front door before they were back on her, “It doesn’t really change much now but I...I’m sorry. For everything.” 

They had a complicated relationship. Max didn’t really hate him, but it’s not like it was easy to like your stepbrother when he’s kind of a major asshole. Once Max really saw Neil Hargrove’s true ugly side, the one so similar to Billy’s, she couldn’t help but feel bad for him. She hated how Billy probably felt so scared and so sad most of the time, but his dick father had made him feel like he couldn’t feel anything without it being shameful. 

Max still was mad, of course, she was. All of the stuff before, with Lucas and even what he did to Steve was just flat out terrible. He clearly had started working stuff out with Steve though and he wasn’t asking her to just flat out forget about everything. 

It was more of an opening for something new, a fresh start.

"It doesn't but...I know."

Even if there more silence between them, that was enough to say the apology more or less was accepted. Billy took his pill and hauled himself up out of the chair with a slight groan. He faced her and for maybe a moment too long they just looked at each other. Standing there with the cold peas on his face and the tired look in his eyes, Max felt like she was staring at the real Billy Hargrove. Not the one that hid behind the tough guy mask, thriving off of pushing other people away. 

He lightly gave her a shrug, "I'm thinking of maybe getting a job at the pool."

"Yeah?"

"They need a lifeguard and I don't think there are many people that are good swimmers in this hick town."

Max could feel a small smile come to her face, "You'll probably be okay, acting as a hero at the pool to the people of Hawkins. It's also like the perfect job environment for you anyways; half-naked and in the burning heat all the time." 

Max swore she saw Billy smile and maybe even try to hold back a laugh as he nodded, turning away to probably head back to his room.  Max was expecting him to start leaving as she went to go clean up the table, but he just stood there. He was hesitating again and Max tried to act like she didn't notice it too much as she went to clean up. She saw Billy turn his head, still physically turned away but probably still able to see her in his peripheral business.

"Max?"

"Yeah?"

There was silence and then he quietly muttered, "Thanks."

Not much more was said as he slowly walked back to his room, Max eventually hearing the door shut. She was stuck there for a moment in shock because that was weird, really  _ weird _ but it was definitely meaningful. It wasn't long before a bigger smile crept to her face as she quickly cleaned everything up, putting the box back in the bathroom and going to her own room to fall asleep.

The truth did seem to bring them a little closer after that night. Billy was still kind of an asshole, especially around Neil, but it wasn't as bad as it used to be. He got her a new board and the insults really didn't have that much venom behind them anymore. Max never asked Billy about Steve, still not her business, but things must have been going well judging by how much more Billy was smiling. When Neil would ask Max where Billy was all day, a check to see if he was fulfilling those mandatory babysitting requirements, Max would cover him. She knew Billy was with Steve and a simple statement about him being around to be her ride was enough to keep Neil calm for the night. When nights got bad she'd still patch Billy up after she convinced him to just sit down.

One day when Neil and her mom were out for the day. Max looked up from the table at the opening front door. She had heard the Camaro pull in the driveway, but really didn't expect Billy to walk in with his hand wrapped around Steve's. Billy didn't seem to notice her, he was on the way to his room with Steve, but Steve, of course, happened to notice her. He froze, stopping Billy in his tracks and he quickly slipped his hand out of Billy's. He gave her a sheepish smile as he ran a hand through his perfectly done hair, "Hey Max."

"Hey, Steve."

"Listen I uh...it's not…-"

Max saw Billy put an arm around Steve's waist, "Relax Pretty Boy, she knows about us."

Steve looked at Billy and Max both with an insane look of confusion, before a grin came to his face. He nervously ran a hand through his hair, "Great! Cool! Yeah, that's good."

Max gave him a small smile, "You guys are cute but can you try to not be so loud? I'm trying to focus on math homework, not screaming."

Steve's face turned as red as a tomato and Billy glared at her before dragging Steve down to his room. She heard his door shut and the rock music turned on, which usually was the cue to not enter in there. Even if they could be doing plenty of nasty things in there, Max still felt a smile on her face as she stared at the numbers of her stupid homework. Max was honestly happy to see them so happy. She was also really glad to know that Steve was the one making him so happy and for once feel like his own person. 


End file.
